Recent years have seen a worldwide proliferation of electronic devices. Hardware manufacturers have been able to use standard operating systems such as, for example, popular smartphone operating systems like Google Android™, Apple iOS™, and Microsoft Windows Embedded 8 Handheld™ to create a new generation of products to enhance productivity and address various challenges in both the personal and commercial realm. Further, a robust software ecosystem has emerged around many of these devices to enhance their functionality and utility and to leverage the vast amount of information and services available from the Internet. The development of applications for these devices has undeniably been a significant factor in the market adoption of many of these devices. However, this development has also driven a need for enhanced security, as it is common nowadays for the hardware manufacturer, operating system provider, and application developer to be separate entities.
In the interest of increased security, the operating systems of many devices, now regularly restrict or eliminate the ability for applications to interact with hardware device settings. A current solution to this problem involves the elevation of the privileges of the application. However, the privilege rights offered by the operating systems are typically not specific enough to provide access only to the hardware settings that the application desires. The result is a different kind of security risk in that applications with elevated privileges have access to critical functionality that exceeds their needs.
Therefore, there is a need for further advances in hardware device architectures that allow for operating systems to provide applications with secure and specific access to hardware device settings.